Friends
by Crystabel.Shalott
Summary: On a cloudy afternoon Annie Cresta finds herself alone on District four's beach, throwing pebbles into the water. The only thing she wants is to be on her own, away from the people who call her crazy but then Finnick arrives and insists to keep her some company.


_A/N: I wrote this a while ago on tumblr as a birthday present for **goodnightclaraxoxo. **I forgot to upload it, but here it is. Enjoy!_

**Friends:**

It was late October. District four looked bleak, especially the north of it where the Victor's Village was located, but then again the village always looked bleak, unimportant of the season. The weather didn't help to make the scene prettier: dark clouds were gathering at the horizon and the air was cool.

Annie Cresta was standing with her feet in the ocean, the cold water arriving at her ankles, her feet solid on the smoothed pebbles of the ground. She throwing pebbles in to the water, making them bounce on the surface a couple of times before they ended on the ocean's ground. She wasn't cold, despite the weather, nor did she slip away from reality. Everyone thought that the only thought of water would have made her go nuts, but it wasn't true. Water was her anchor to reality, the temperature was numbing and kept her focused, but most of all it was a sign that she was home. Even in the arena, after everything got covered by water, the idea of home had been what kept her going on and swimming. No one knows it, Annie kept it a well hidden secret, because they would have thought her even more mad. She didn't even tell her family that she went to the ocean because they would have followed her to keep an eye on her, making sure that she didn't do something stupid like drown herself for desperation.

But why should she kill herself? She felt a lot better than when she first got back home after the games. The flashbacks were irregular and didn't happen all days. Bad days and good days were now balanced, and she was sure that with more time she would have managed to make them stop completely.

But people did not care about her getting better, they didn't notice all her progress. All they could think bout was her screaming and panicking. One word, there was one word with which she was described almost by everyone.

C-R-A-Z-Y.

A word whispered behind her back when she was in the streets or in the shops.

Was she mad? At first she thought so too, and there were still days when she questioned her sanity but most of the time she considered herself normal.

"I'm not crazy!" She murmured as another stone landed in the water.

Finnick Odair was walking on the beach. He didn't like the one near the Victor's village due to the lack of sand, but right now he needed some time alone so it was just perfect, since no one used it, because he wanted some time alone. But not that day, that day there was someone else, who apparently had had his same idea. As he got closer he recognized Annie Cresta, this year's victor. He had never talked to her and only saw her a couple of times - once at the reaping, and once at the interview of her victory tour - because it had been a very bad year: for some unknown reason Snow made him see clients in every district and on the top of all he chose the most perverted ones. Months had passed and Finnick still woke up from nightmares of what happened, he was breaking down very slowly, of that he was sure. The trick was trying to prevent it because once it happened, he was sure there wouldn't have been a way back.

Talking about breaking down, he would have never imagined to see Annie Cresta standing in the water, not after what happened in the arena. But then he never imagined Annie Cresta would have come out of the arena in first place, as did everyone else. Yes, she was a career but she was smaller than the other participants, it didn't look like she would have had a real chance. But she was clever and with the help of her district partner made herself into the games. And then Triton Welle got beheaded and everyone discovered something else about Annie: she was strong. Very. Despite her trauma she kept on fighting and survived. In his opinion it would have been better for her to die in the woods rather than coming back, because as soon as she got rescued, everything she held back in the arena overwhelmed her.

And now everybody - from the Districts or from the Capitol, it didn't matter - thought her crazy. But she wasn't crazy, was she? She was just like every other victor with the difference that she was honest about her conditions.

What was it, that Mags told him?

_She is not crazy, she is the only honest one here._

And as usual Mags was right.

Another thing that Mags kept telling him lately, was that he and Annie would have been really good friends if he only decided to talk to her. 'One year of difference between you, and similar in spirit and inclination' was Mags favorite quote. Finnick would have talked to Annie already but he wasn't sure he actually wanted to have friends: he wanted to stay alone but at the same time he wouldn't have minded to have someone, close to his age, to talk to or just to hang around with. It would have been something normal in his chaotic existence. And for the last reason he finally made up his mind and went to talk to her.

"Hi" he said as he stood behind her.

Annie jumped, her heart begun to beat faster and she panicked, she turned around ready to throw the stone she was holding in her hand. It wouldn't have killed the attacker but she would have had time to run away.

"Oh" she said. It wasn't a threat, she wasn't in the arena. It just was "The great and grand Finnick Odair"

"You don't have any intention of killing me do you?" said Finnick looking at her raised hand.

Annie took a few deep breaths, and lowered her hand. A moment passed before she answered because she had to gain control again. This had been a really bad moment, but what kind of person sneaked up behind someone's shoulder?

_I'm safe. I'm safe. I'm safe._

"No, I'm not going to kill you. Unless you give me a reason for it" she simply said.

"I doubt it'll happen. And I'm not great and grand, it's the complete opposite"

He hated it when people reminded him of his public image, because they didn't know the reasons of his popularity and he certainly didn't like to think about his position.

Annie shrugged, she didn't care about Finnick Odair anyway or rather she was not interested in his image, she was sure that it all was an exaggeration and now that she herself was a victor she despised his act. Which she was sure, he putted on for some reasons. All the victors did.

Then she recalled what just happened and f this was the time to sincere she had to tell him that she didn't always threat to death the people who greeted her.

"And I'm not crazy, nor a poor mad girl, nor anything related to insanity. Sometimes I have flashbacks but that is pretty normal... or at least I think it is" she murmured.

"I never said that, so please don't put words in my mouth. Anyway, what are you doing?"

"Having fun"

Finnick raised an eyebrow.

"On my own. Which happens a lot lately, I have lots of free time you know"

"I have too"

"No you don't. You have Mags, I have ..." Annie paused a moment "no one"

"Don't say so"

"It's the truth though"

Yes, she had family but they were slowly getting on her nerves. They were too overprotective even now that she was recovering, so she preferred staying on her own. Mags told her to come to her sometimes but until now she never did, fearing to become a burden.

A burden, that's how she felt.

Finnick noticed Annie's discomfort so he tried to change the argument. "You know, I always wanted to learn how to make stones can you teach me?"

"So there is something you can't do, I thought since everyone looks up to you..."

"Annie, you more than the others should know that appearances are deceiving. Will you teach me?"

"If you don't have better things to do"

"I don't"

Annie shrugged. She didn't believe him but if he insisted upon spending time with her and then repented it, it was just his fault. She warned him. She took a new stone from the ground and threw it in to the ocean, where it made free bounces before landing in the water.

"I used to do this with my cousin" she said after she throw two stones.

Suddenly Finnick remembered that she grew up in her aunt's home. She said something like that in one of the interviews or was it Mags' who told him? He couldn't say. But then he thought about it again and noticed that Annie used a past tense. He begun to worry: Snow didn't kill them, did he?

"They are still alive. But they don't trust me when I'm near water"

Finnick felt relieved, he knew a lot of victors whose families had been killed of after the victory. His family was part of the list.

"So what do I have to do?" he asked, taking a pebble into his hand.

"You have to throw it, like this"

Finnick tried to imitate Annie's action. It couldn't be that different, could it? And yet his stone fell down right in front of him. He tried again but with the same result, in the mean time Annie continued to enjoy herself. Finnick thought that she was just showing off, but it was Annie Cresta they were talking about, and from all he knew about her she wasn't a person that showed off, more likely she preferred her own company.

"You are doing it wrong" she stated "let me help you. Can I?"

Finnick did not understand but he saw her nodding towards his hand. She was asking permission to touch him. For some reason it made him happy, that she asked permission for something so simple. It wasn't anything sexual but he was so used to people touching him even for just a second, that it was rather amazing that Annie asked for permission.

"Sure"

She got closer and took his hands in hers and showed him the right movement. A few more attempts and Finnick managed to make the stone bounce once on the water surface before it fell in the water. Once he had become more familiar with the technique, he and Annie decided to do a race. Annie won for a difference of a couple of points, and Finnick suspected she did it on purpose to let him win some of the attempts.

They spent a couple of hours like this: they threw stones and chatted about everything that came into their minds. They were both surprised to discover that they got along pretty well, and that they were really similar.

When the first drops of rain begun to fall they headed home, and as Annie arrived at her front door and turned around Finnick called her back. Because he wanted to make something clear, both to her and to himself.

"What?" asked Annie.

"You are not alone"

_No she wasn't. _Thought Finnick. As he wasn't anymore

"You have Mags... And you have me" he added.

"You?"

Annie did not understand what he meant.

Finnick nodded in approval "We are friends now. Never forget that"


End file.
